Beyond the Keyboard

Five Simple Strategies for Researching Beyond the Internet

by Kathleen W. Hinckley, CGRS

The Internet has created a double-edged sword for genealogists. The computerized indexes promote research into hundreds, even thousands, of resources that produce "hits" within seconds. Some long-standing genealogical research problems are being solved because of the Internet resources. What may have taken months to accomplish in a traditional library can be done in minutes at the keyboard.

The only way to resolve the double-edged sword is to go beyond the keyboard and conduct more in-depth research with traditional sources. For example, if you find your ancestor's date of marriage in an index on the Internet, go beyond the keyboard and obtain a photocopy of the marriage record. Study the document. Was the couple married by a Justice of the Peace or by a clergyman? If they were married by a minister, you have a clue to their religion. Were the witnesses friends or relatives? Was the data transcribed correctly by the indexer? The year may have been 1840 rather than 1849 if the zero was misread as a nine.

The Internet is but a mere window into the world of resources available to genealogists. For every published genealogy, cemetery index, marriage record, census enumeration, or military reference found on the Web, there are thousands more in libraries, archives, courthouses, and museums. The reliability of records are questionable whether found on the Internet or elsewhere. Nevertheless, you need to locate all possible records, or variations of a record, and analyze the data.

This can be illustrated with the family genealogies found on the Internet. I found a Web site that presented a seemingly complete genealogy of a family I was researching. The goal of my research project was to identify and locate living descendants of an individual in the genealogy. The online version named that individual, but did not indicate if there were any siblings. When I located another genealogy for the same family in a library, the siblings were named, thus helping me locate living descendants. If I had limited my research to the Internet, I would not have been able to piece the total family together.

Below are five strategies that will make your research more effective and successful when you go beyond the keyboard:

1. Compare Data Gathered from Different Sources

Invariably you will find discrepancies, and you'll need to determine what is fact and what items need further research. The Social Security Death Index (SSDI), for example, gives birth dates, a full or partial death date, and death residence. How do you know if all the data reported is correct? And how do you know for sure that the person you found in the SSDI is your relative? Believe it or not, two persons with the same name can have the same birth date. That is rare, but it does happen.

I recently found conflicting data when comparing information from the SSDI with a family pedigree found on the World Family Tree. The day of birth varied between the two records, and the place of death did not agree with the "death residence" in the SSDI. An individual's place of death and death residence reported in the SSDI are most often the same. But in this case the individual died in a hospital near a child's residence, while the social security checks were being mailed to the person's permanent residence. By comparing the data in the SSDI and World Family Tree, I was able to see the conflicting information and seek documentation to create an accurate family history. The death certificate, obituary, and interviews with the family confirmed that the birth date in the SSDI was correct and, of course, helped explain the death residence data in the SSDI.

2. Study the Original Version of Pertinent Books

Suppose you search a cemetery index available online but do not make a "hit." This puzzles you because you fully expected your ancestor to be in the index since he lived in the area his entire life. Rather than accepting the negative research results, seek out the original book version of the index. Perhaps the preface (not always included in computerized indexes) will explain that only inscriptions from the headstones were in the index. If your ancestor had an unmarked grave, it would explain his non-appearance in the index.

Many cemetery indexes online are only the index portion of a cemetery book. In other words, the "index" was placed online, but the original book has a separate section with the actual inscriptions. For example, the index (online and in the book) might say "Smith, John (1870-1898) whereas the printed book might have that same index entry, but lead you to page 45 where you see the transcription: "John Smith, veteran of Spanish American War, born 1 January 1870, died 31 December 1898."

There may also be a typographical error (pertaining to your ancestor) in the index, and you will only figure that out by studying the book page by page. If the online version does not allow full page view, you will need the original book.

Photographs and images in the original book are often not included in online versions either. The cemetery index may have a map to the cemetery, or photographs of some tombstones. The same would be true for other types of books such as genealogies, county histories, and even reference books.

3. Evaluate Data and Prepare Research Strategies

A family history titled Thomas Halsey of Hertfordshire, England, and Southampton, Long Island, 1591-1679, with his American Descendants to the Eighth and Ninth Generations by Jacob Lafayette Halsey and Edmund Drake Halsey published in 1895 is searchable online at Genealogy Library . On page 78 is the following:

"Philip [Halsey], b. 1760, Bridgehampton, L.I.; tanner and shoemaker; d. Sept. 4, 1846. He was Captain in Continental Army, was with the last company that evacuated New York City when the army retreated; was discharged at White Plains. During Revolutionary war moved to Windsor to escape the British. He married Esther, dau of Elisha Moore, of Windsor, Ct."

The author does not cite his sources for any of the facts, and you, as a conscientious genealogist, need to know how these conclusions were reached. The DAR Patriot Index Centennial Edition, Part II (Washington: NSDAR, 1990), p. 1283 (in my personal library) gives the same year of birth and death for Philip Halsey; however, it indicates he was a Private (rather than Captain) and a Fifer (see end of this article for use of a genealogical dictionary to define fifer). The DAR Patriot Index also reports that Philip Halsey received a pension. Did the author obtain his information from the pension file? We have no way of knowing since he did not cite his source(s). Taking the step beyond the keyboard means obtaining the pension record and looking for other sources that document the life of this individual.

4. Obtain a Copy of the Original Record

Obtain a copy of the original record. As mentioned in the introduction to this article, if you find a marriage date in an index on the Internet, you should obtain a photocopy of the original record. If your ancestor is named in a census index, seek out the full census record. Using the example of a published genealogy mentioned above, the author does cite a source in his summary of Wilman Halsey:

The step beyond the keyboard would be to obtain a photocopy of the original will. The full will is sure to provide additional information, and will be an asset to your collection of family papers. The will book cited in the genealogy has been microfilmed and available at the Family History Library or any of its Family History Centers.

5. Build a Personal Library

Although the Internet is a tremendous resource, we still need books. Genealogical reference books will expand your knowledge of sources and provide addresses of courthouses, details of record availability by state or county, and information on types of records for various time periods. By combining the technology and accessibility of the Internet with good old-fashioned books, you will become more astute in your research methodology.

Below is an annotated bibliography of books to begin your personal library. You can expand your library with specialized books relevant to your area and time period of research.

Beginners' How-To Guides

Allen, Desmond Walls. First Steps in Genealogy. Cincinnati: Betterway Books, 1998. A basic guide to getting started in genealogy. Gives instruction in using homes sources, census, and courthouse records.

Carmack, Sharon Debartolo. The Genealogy Sourcebook. Los Angeles: Lowell House, 1997. An excellent guide to beginning research. Emphasizes activities beyond research, such as joining genealogical or lineage societies, attending workshops and conferences, building a library, subscribing to periodicals, and writing your own life history.

to Genealogy. New York: Simon and Schuster Macmillan Company, 1997. A well-organized and thorough presentation of all record types used in genealogical research. Sidebars titled Pedigree Pitfalls, Tree Tips, and Genie Jargon are scattered throughout the book, making it easy to grasp the complexities of genealogy.

Address Books

Handy Book for Genealogists, The. 8th ed. Logan, Utah: Everton Publishers, 1991. This standard genealogical reference has been in print since 1947. The 9th edition will be published in late 1998. Includes the address, telephone number, date of county creation, and summaries of records held for every courthouse in the United States.

Kemp, Thomas Jay. International Vital Records Handbook. 3rd ed. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1994. Contains forms and information for ordering vital records from each of the fifty states and over 200 countries. Remember that the forms were current in about 1993-1994; therefore, telephone the agency to confirm address and fees.

Smith, Juliana Szucs. The Ancestry Family Historian's Address Book: A Comprehensive List of Local, State, and Federal Agencies and Institutions and Ethnic and Genealogical Organizations. Salt Lake City: Ancestry, Inc., 1997. The title says it all. URL addresses are included for many listings.

Dictionary

Evans, Barbara Jean. A to Zax: A Comprehensive Dictionary for Genealogists and Historians. 3rd ed. Alexandria, VA: Hearthside Press, 1995. You will be surprised how many times you'll reach for this dictionary to define words found in documents. The discussion on the Halsey genealogy in point number 3 indicated that Philip Halsey had been a "fifer" during the American Revolution. The definition in the Comprehensive Dictionary explains that it is a person who plays a small, shrill flute made of wood usually used in combination with a snare drum to produce military music.

Documentation

Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence! Citation and Analysis for the Family Historian. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997. Explains genealogical standards for citation and analysis-then provides over 300 models for citing conventional and online materials common to family history.

Guides to Sources

Eichholz, Alice, ed. Ancestry's Red Book: American State, County and Town Sources. Rev ed. Salt Lake City: Ancestry, Inc., 1992. A guide to resources in each state and the District of Columbia. Each state includes summaries of vital, census, maps, land, probate, court, tax, cemetery, church, military, manuscripts, newspapers, periodicals, and naturalization records, plus an historical summary of settlement patterns. There is a map for each state showing county boundaries plus addresses and date of formation for each county.

Meyerink, Kory L., ed. Printed Sources: A Guide to Published Genealogical Records. Salt Lake City, Ancestry, Inc., 1998. Fourteen authors contributed to this major guidebook, presented in twenty chapters that discusses all aspects of published sources, including recent electronic publications on CD-ROM. A companion volume to The Source listed below.

About the Author Kathleen W. Hinckley, is a Certified Genealogical Records Specialist, author, lecturer, and owner and operator of Family Detective. She also serves as the executive director of the Association of Professional Genealogists, and trustee for the Board for Certification of Genealogists.